Been listening to Brian Wilson's Smile all day. It's extraordinary. I get choked up thinking about how close the world came to only hearing this in fragments. For every passage that's stiffer than the original (and we can include the vocals on "Wonderful," "Surf's Up," and "Good Vibrations" in this category, as well as the far-less-than-insane intro to "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" -- although all make up for it in other ways), there's a section of lyrics or music or perfect wordless harmony that just takes my breath away. I think I first grew emotional when suddenly there were new words and sounds in "Barnyard", the fourth song on the album (which was always 3rd on my homemade Smile, before - rather than after - "Do You Like Worms?," which is now retitled "Roll Plymouth Rock"). The fantastic transition from "Wonderful" to "Child Is Father Of The Man" is now filled by "Song For Children," which previously was known as the instrumental "Look". The lyrics on "I'm In Great Shape/I Wanna Be Around/Workshop" and the transition to "Vega-Tables" make it one of the darkest beautiful things that Brian Wilson or the Beach Boys ever created outside of "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times." The instrumental "Holiday" is now the pirate drama "On A Holiday." "Love To Say Da Da" has become "In Blue Hawaii," an intentionally silly ode to the 50th American state. There's no sign of "He Gives Speeches/She's Going Bald" or "Well, You're Welcome".
Listening to the completed original teenage symphony to God leads me to wonder how different American rock music would have developed if Brian Wilson had been able to finish it. Smile is such a deeply weird and wholly gorgeous slice of wholesome psychedelic Americana; it's hard to imagine what would have happened if it had been a piece of mainstream music. It's no mere concept album, like Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper's, but a full-blown rock opera, following the notion that albums and songs can proceed in narratively or musically linked sections but rejecting the folk-song verse-chorus-verse trope that informs so much rock music, and pre-dating the hereto recognized first rock opera, The Who's "A Quick One (While He's Away)," by two years.